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| Title |
Top Spin |
8 |
| Publisher |
Microsoft |
| Developer |
PAM |
| Genre |
Sports |
| Players |
1-4 |
| Version |
UK PAL |
Remarkable feat
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Occasionally a game comes along that defines how people look at a specific genre and dominates that genre for many years and multiple sequels to come. Activision managed this with Tony Hawk?s Pro Skater on the Playstation, Yukes pulled a coup with Smackdown on the same system and Sega really took a hold of the mal-nourished Tennis genre with Virtua Tennis. What usually follows are third rate knock-offs by other publishers, or in many cases, no one even bothers trying to compete. However, with Top Spin, Microsoft are looking to take the crown Sega held for many years, and they look to do it with a resounding ?up yours? to the Japanese giant.
Indeed, PAM, the creators of Top Spin, have been very open that Virtua Tennis was the inspiration for the control scheme that has really refined tennis games in recent years. In fact, the control scheme and overall feel of Top Spin is so close to that of Virtua Tennis, it would be almost impossible not to draw direct comparisons between the two games. However PAM have taken the basis of Virtua Tennis? arcade style and really looked to improve on it in every way ? something that they have surprisingly managed to do. I say surprising because in most cases where companies take an idea perfected by someone else and try to make it their own, what is left is often only the shell of what was made so great in the previous game. What PAM have done though is literally just given the player much more control over the shots that can be taken during a match. With Virtua Tennis and its sequel, the player was constricted to using just two buttons, lob and top spin, with a combination of the analog stick to perform the various actions of the tennis player. The problem here was that it often could be difficult to really direct your shots accurately since you were constantly holding a direction in order to pull of the correct shot selection. With Top Spin though the controls have been extended to using all four of the available face buttons AS WELL as the two shoulder buttons. It?s now possible to hit flat, top spin, back spin or lobs with ease and the correct direction at any point.
What is really special though, and ultimately the defining difference between this game and Sega?s arcade hit is the use of the ?risk? shot. At any point during a rally (or indeed for a serve) the player can pull either of the shoulder buttons and a sliding bar appears above the player?s head. The idea is to release the shoulder button just as the bar hits the middle, and doing so will pull off a (in theory) winning shot. The type of shot made depends on where your character is and which shoulder button you pull (the left trigger for drop shot, the right for power/passing). The reason this is such a revolutionary idea for a tennis game is that it really adds that x-factor that Virtua Tennis lacks and allows the player to have that edge and really go for broke if they feel they have the skill to pull off the shot. It takes some practice to pull off a successful risk shot, and even after you feel you have mastered it, you will still get it wrong a lot of the time. This also adds a great deal to the service also. Once you realise the potential of the risk shot at the serve you will start using it more and more for your first serve, and consequently hit more aces, but also more of your first services will go wide/long. It really does make the game you are playing seem a great deal closer to the game of tennis.
In terms of playing options, the player has a fair amount to choose from. There?s the obligatory Exhibition match and Tournament mode where it?s possible to choose from one of the 16 licensed players (more on them later). However, if the majority of the single player experience is found in the Career mode where a new character needs to be created and taken up the ranks of the tennis world. The depth in creating your character is quite immense with potentially unlimited combinations due to the extremely powerful body morphing engine. Once your rising star has been created he or she then needs to be taken around the world competing in tournaments and training in various disciplines. The idea is very similar to Virtua Tennis again but unfortunately the training modes aren?t nearly as fun. What is more satisfying though is that with each successful training session you really feel your character has improved in their game and playing tournaments becomes a lot easier. A nice touch is that there are also Sponsors scattered around the globe that are always looking to sponsor the next up and coming tennis star.
Competing in tournaments is a bit of a mixed affair really. It starts off a pleasurable experience, and even though there are only three matches per tournament, it can become a bit of a grind going around the world competing in low level tournaments just so you can add that trophy to your cabinet, when in reality you can be ready for the top level fairly early on in your career. It would also have been nice to allow the option of playing some doubles tournaments just to mix things up a bit.
It?s worth noting (and Microsoft are indeed making a big deal out of this) that if you are Live enabled then you can take Top Spin online and compete against others in tournaments set up on the Microsoft XSNSports.com network and even participate regularly in the live ladder matches. However not having Microsoft Live I am unable to test this feature, but it?s certainly good to Microsoft taking that step and looking to make online sports a dominant force in their online console strategy since sports games are really left alone by the majority of online PC gamers and such a major genre in the console market, with a great deal of online potential.
Graphically Top Spin does well in most areas. Certainly the arenas, while not official, are crafted extremely well with a very wide range available to play on, from the grand stand courts vaguely resembling the 4 grand slam courts from Wimbledon, Melbourne, Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows, all the way down to a simple school tennis court. However, even such humble courts are very well done with a great deal of time and detail put into each one. It is a shame that none of the official courts and tournaments were included, but the replacements look extremely good in their place.
As mentioned before, there are 16 licensed tennis players included in the game, 8 male and 8 female but I can?t help thinking that the choices made for the players was a little uninspired. While having guys and girls like Pete Sampras, Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova is great, Sampras recently retired (and hadn?t played a professional match for a year anyway ? more than enough time for his inclusion to course some frowns), Martina Hingis has also been retired for some time, and it?s clear that Kournikova was chosen because of her image rather than what she can produce on a tennis court. The other slightly less well known tennis players such as Anre Medvedev are also a bit suspect with, in reality, only Lleyton Hewitt being perhaps the only worthy entry to the roster of players. As I said, even though having someone like Pete Sampras is really great, I feel more foresight should have been taken on who to have star in such an important title. It would have been much more fitting to have some rising stars such as Roger Federer or Andy Roddick included to reflect the coming of age of the younger tennis stars such as this game is to the tennis genre of video game. It also needs to be said that the stars that were included leave a little to the imagination when it comes to looks. From a distance they could quite easily pass for the player in question, but in the animations that occur after a point is won or lost it clearly shows the rather mediocre resemblance.
What does do wonders to making up for that though are the animations. While all the standard animations are there for your created player to use, the licensed players all have animations that very closely resemble their real life counterparts. It may not be noticeable to the causal tennis fan, but having Pete Sampras? elegant and simple-looking serve, or Lleyton Hewitt?s jumping double handed backhand really goes a long way to immersing you in the action, and to be honest, really an essential ingredient.
In terms of sounds, everything sounds as it should, from the crisp thwack of the ball off the racket to the grunts of the players in a particularly long rally. The ambience is very good and what is a good choice, there is no music playing during a match unlike that of Virtua Tennis, which again shows the idea that this is a game closer suited to tennis fans than the causal arcarde market. There?s no commentary to speak of, which isn?t such a bad thing, but unfortunately the umpires? voices are rather poorly done and the line calls sound closer to that of a gorilla (or Brian Blessed) than of a man.
The great thing about sports games is that if you have enough love of the sport, you can really keep playing the games for as long as you can stand them. With multiple friends a lot of fun can be had with four player doubles or it can be taken online for an even wider range of opponents. While tennis isn?t to everyone?s tastes, this game manages to appeal to people on many levels. It can be played in the same ?arcadey? way as Virtua Tennis, or for those who understand the intricacies of tennis, it can be taken even further, and this is perhaps what sets it apart from all other games of this genre, even that of Virtua Tennis. It is fun to just pick up and play, but it?s very easy to get sucked up into the deeper inner workings of the game.
Top Spin does have it?s faults admittedly, but they are so very much out weighed by the quality of the gameplay that they can quite easily be forgiven. This is most certainly a must own title for the Xbox, much in the same way that Virtua Tennis and Tennis 2K2 were for the Dreamcast, but luckily for us Microsoft want to seem to take Tennis beyond just having the odd knock-around and have created a game that should be remembered for years to come.
Seth Powell |
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